Perspective
by muhnemma
Summary: Four couples, five themes. GeorgeXAlanna, JonXThayet, DaineXNumair and KelXDom


**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters

**Alanna and George**

**Longing**

When Alanna is away, George feels her absence most keenly at night. He stares at paperwork without even attempting to make sense of it, sharpens his daggers, and eventually falls asleep in an armchair rather than their too large bed. When the morning comes the only sign of his agitation it the occasional drumming of his fingertips against a tabletop; he doesn't want the children to lack a father too.

**Abandon**

Alanna forgets that she is surrounded by soldiers, that she herself is coated in dust from the road, and runs into the waiting arms of her husband.

**Heat**

It's his smile that does it. It spreads across his face slowly, lazily, although something about the glint of teeth behind his lips is predatorial. That smile tells her that, for the moment, she is the only thing that exists for him; and he has all the time in the world to spend on her.

**Fight**

Alanna often forgets the sharpness of her tongue. Later, when her temper has cooled and she has had time to regret her words, George reminds her that he was born with a thick skin, and it's had time to get thicker since they met.

**Lost**

Despite their fierce independence, they both know that they need each other. It is impossible for either of them to imagine life without the other, and painful when they try.

**Jon and Thayet**

**Longing**

Sometimes they both sigh as they watch their betrothed friends slip hand in hand from banquets or balls, giggling. Monarchs don't have the privilege of seeking out dark corners.

**Abandon**

When Thayet is really furious with her husband she removes herself from the marital bed, seeking refuge in a far flung corner of the palace.

**Heat**

Thayet held the sheet against her bare chest, willing herself not to blush. It was Jon's birthday, of course she should have realised that the children would want to give him their presents as soon as possible. But couldn't they have waited until she had given him her gift?

**Fight**

They fight about the possibility of their daughter becoming a Page. They fight about arranged marriages for their children. They fight about things that aren't within their power to change. Jon can become furious that Thayet doesn't understand that certain things are expected of them. Thayet knows well what is expected, but she won't accept the unfair without a fight.

**Lost**

When necessity separates them they can never quite function properly. A part of their mind is always with the other, wondering whether they are safe.

**Daine and Numair**

**Longing**

Their friends find it amusing that they don't think they notice the covert looks that Numair and Daine cast each other in the first few weeks of their new, 'secret' relationship.

**Abandon**

Sometimes they scurry silently from their bed in the middle of the night, leaving marmosets, kittens and a dragonet, and seek out a place where they will only have each other, and there is no risk of rolling onto anything spiky.

**Heat**

Numair is surprised and happy to discover that their age difference matters little; she makes his tremble, gasp and shiver as much as he makes her.

**Fight**

Daine complains about the teetering piles of books. Numair complains about the constant mass of feathers and fur. When they clean their rooms one day, Daine discovers that she misses the books and Numair that he has grown attached to the feathers.

**Lost**

Terrified, Numair watches the prone crow spiral from the sky to hit the ground with a thump. He had lost track of Daine in the chaos: had he just lost her?

**Kel and Dom**

**Longing**

Not for the first time, Kel wonders whether she is too fickle. A look from Neal used to make her breath catch in her throat, and she had lost hours in kissing Cleon. As it unnatural for her to feel the same for a third man?

**Abandon**

The first time Dom makes her laugh in earnest, head thrown back, Yamani mask definitely slipping, he smiles so long and widely that almost everyone in the camp has a chance to tease him about it.

**Heat**

He gazes intently from across the mess hall, wearing a lopsided grin that has undoubtedly seduced more than one woman in the past, and Kel had to lower her head to hide a sudden, unexpected blush.

**Fight**

Kel infuriates him when they quarrel – or, more accurately, when he quarrels. She stands blank faced before him, neither anger nor sadness showing in her hazel eyes.

**Lost**

Kel isn't quite sure whether she likes the complete loss of control she experiences momentarily whenever Dom leans in to kiss her.


End file.
